We live in an unprecedented era of customizability of physical goods and services. One problem that still appears relatively unsolved is the proliferation of settings. I will speak about software, since it’s the domain I’m more familiar with. Many could argue, this is a problem only if your application doesn’t Read more…
My next instalment on distributed systems after Elasticsearch and Redis is Apache Kafka. The intended audience, as usual, is absolute beginners with distributed systems. I’ve spent a significant amount of time on doing the diagrams to facilitate explanations. Please consider subscribing and giving a thumbs up if you’ve liked the content. Read more…
On my quest to make shorter videos on programming fundamentals, I’m kicking this initiative with a video explaining the mechanics of compiled and interpreted programming languages and the trade-offs associated with each. The presentation inside the video is embedded below as well. Enjoy! If you find it useful, give it Read more…
One of the most interesting datasets I have is my own Apple Health data, which I’ve always liked playing with. Some years ago, I did share a post analyzing the data using Jupyter Notebook. Today is 2021 and a popular visualization tool with software developers for collecting system metrics is Grafana. Read more…
After a month and half of making, in this 3-part series I go over the How Video Streaming Works, if you find any of the videos useful – like & subscribe! Terminology HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) Content Distribution Network (CDN)
People often ask me why do I blog and how much time do I spend doing it? I often reply that some posts take 3 months to write or longer and I see shock on their faces. Yes, it’s an overkill in many cases, in reality only a small percentage Read more…
Recently, I’ve noticed a lot of people (novices and experienced developers) are not using even the popular shortcuts in Windows File Explorer, which prompted me to share some tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years. Fortunately, Microsoft has kept the majority of keyboard shortcuts consistent since Windows 95. I’ll Read more…
In this post we’ll explore what is GraphQL and when it makes sense to use it. We’ll map an existing SQL database (SQLite) with an Object Relational Mapping (ORM) system – SQLAlchemy in Python, and finally unify both concepts by using the ORM bindings inside GraphQL queries and start up Read more…
This setup guide is intended for people starting up web development and some of the best tips & tricks when working with Visual Studio Code in 2020. Nowadays, you have quite a few options for text editors and IDEs, but the most established and still gaining steam is Visual Studio Read more…
It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog post, let alone a one building a new tiny game. So the latest addition is https://pong.ivaylopavlov.com as you can probably guess, it’s a simple game of pong. I remember that back in the day, many programmers started out with building Read more…
I’ve received a very positive feedback after the Elasticsearch presentation, available here. It’s been almost exactly a year, since I published it. Recently, I’ve been exploring a different type of data store, that’s all the rage at the moment – Redis. Pleasantly surprised by the rich feature set compared to Read more…
Since writing Setting up Oh-my-Zsh, I’ve levelled up in terms of shell usage and customization. I’ve also switched to Windows as my primary development environment due to variety of reasons. The main one being that I finally built myself a desktop PC and switched away from my trustworthy 7 year-old Read more…
I’ve been contemplating recently if there is value in legacy code and if so, what is it? It’s the result of inheriting a new codebase coupled with more free time at home due to social distancing because of COVID-19. I’m sharing below my findings and conclusions. What is ‘legacy code’ Read more…
I was looking for a project to improve my knowledge of the most significant ReactJS feature in recent time – hooks, alongside the new bits in TypeScript 3.7. Something relatively simple, in the spirit of the previous games I’ve built in TypeScript/ES6, seemed to be a Minesweeper clone. In this Read more…
I was curious to see if over time the type of music I listen to has changed. Have I started listening to quieter genres or more bass-heavy tracks? After a small search, it turned out Spotify conveniently provides the Spotipy python package that interacts with their Web API and allows Read more…
This year during 4-8th November 2019 in Lisbon, Portugal, I had the pleasure of attending the WebSummit Conference. To my pleasant surprise, I won a free ticket via the open source initiative on their website. It was my first year attending this conference, so there were plenty of impressions to Read more…
Welcome to Part IV of the series. If this is your first encounter with this collection of articles, it might be worth having a read through the first three parts. All of which are relatively short – Part I, Part II, Part III. Never use language keywords as object keys Read more…
Let me start with a question, how many software engineers do you know that enjoy Frontend development? One question has always baffled me – Why is frontend universally unloved? Let’s throw a few suggestions: Is it the juggling between 3 “languages” – HTML, CSS, JavaScript? Is it the messy CSS Read more…
After the success of the post “Building a Python REST API with Flask”, a worthy follow up is how to go from sending static data to streaming data and putting it in a React Table that shows the values in real-time. This is somewhere in the top 5 most asked Read more…
The entire software engineering community has focused on converting their Python 2.7 code to Python 3. From Jan 1st 2020, Python 2.7 will no longer be officially supported. But beyond gaining ability to use a few new cool modules and having future support, what are you actually gaining by moving Read more…
I often get asked why markets behave the way they do. If I had an exact answer to this question, I’d be a billionaire. Hundreds of books are written on this topic, each with its own sound reasoning. It’s an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of smart analytical people, Read more…
For the first time ever, I attended the Python Software Foundation’s PyCon Conference in Cleveland, USA. I was nothing short of impressed, a great variety of talks and keynotes and very friendly people. I consider myself an intermediate python developer, but the talks were suitable for all knowledge levels. The Read more…
In the past two or so months, I’ve immersed myself in the world of Apache Lucene and Elasticsearch. I wanted to share the knowledge I’ve gathered and have distilled it in less than 20 slides. It’s intended for anyone interested in starting to use Elasticsearch and understanding how is it Read more…
What is a REST API? It stands for REpresentational State Transfer. This means each unique URL is a representation of an object. It’s one of the web services that allows for data transport, other notable alternative is SOAP. It offers CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) object operations via POST, PUT, Read more…
If you are interested in Technical Analysis of Financial Markets, the below books are the ones I can recommend as a good foundation for understanding of the field. Believe me when I say I have read quite a few on the topic, back when I was doing equity analytics. The Read more…
Welcome to Part III of the coder to software engineer series. You might be interested in reading the first two posts – Part I and Part II. Optimization is mostly useless You would meet a lot of perfectionist in the software engineering profession. They like to optimize their code, like Read more…
It’s not once I’ve reiterated that predictions are a loser’s game. I don’t expect this to be any different here. I’ve pondered on this opinion piece for more than two months. It’s by far the one I’ve struggled the most to express clearly in words. The idea I want to Read more…
If you just want to play the Sudoku game, it’s available here: sudoku.ivaylopavlov.com I was wondering what game to make next using ReactJS to solidify my knowledge with the framework. The choice was between a Minesweeper clone or a Sudoku game. The reason I narrowed it down to these two Read more…
This post is an evolution of Introduction to Computer Science in 5 Amazing Books. You will see a skew towards object-oriented programming towards the end of the list, which I confess to in advance. The focus is on cloud computing architecture, where you need to think about different set of Read more…
There is no other language that divides the software development community today as much as JavaScript does. It’s a language with rich history and the way it got to the state it is in today is no coincidence. Let me say it upfront, I like JavaScript as a programming language, TypeScript Read more…
Originally this post was about to be explaining all investment fund types and their differences so I created the diagram above after a month of research. After writing more than 15 000 words and being under half of what I intended to write, I realized you, as a reader, are Read more…
I often like to contemplate on what professions will the future hold. In 10 years time, we’ll definitely have jobs nobody could foresee today. Predicting the future is tough. Ask Jeff Bezos who says that people ask him the wrong question – “What will change in 10 years time?”, rather Read more…
If you want to play the game – Ivo Peg Solitaire, it’s available here: http://pegsolitaire.ivaylopavlov.com On my journey to try out new technologies and languages, the next stop after the IvoTetris Game built in Angular and TypeScript, was React and ES6. I got the online course on React on Udemy from Read more…
This is the continuation of the discoveries I’ve made since switching from coding as a hobby to a profession. If you haven’t read the first post, you can find it here. Text Editors vs IDEs This could be an entire post by itself, hardcore VIM users vs. EMACS vs. fans Read more…
When I made the switch from finance to software development, I was doing mostly scripting on small projects, nothing major. Since I started the job, I learned a bunch of very valuable lessons. I didn’t have a Computer Science degree, just a passion to tinker and invent things. Many of Read more…
Every once in a while I come upon an article or a blog post that I say to my self – “I wish I was the author of that one”. So I decided to share 5 of the ones I’ve read again recently. The authors do really deserve a shout Read more…
As a person who’s always been keen on trying the latest gadgets. In the past 2 years I discovered the almost ultimate nerd-vana – The Smart Home gadgets and gimmicks. So I decided to share my findings, I thought you might find them helpful if you’ve also started that journey or Read more…
The above image is created by Jamie Tate from Rukkus Room and I stumbled upon it randomly on the web. It inspired me to write this blog post, as it resonated deeply with me. With the advance of computers and the binary world, one thing that took a significant step back Read more…
This is by far the most requested post I’ve had from friends. As a person who has been exposed to both sides, people are curious on what my opinion is. I’ll start from the absolute basics and build up. I want to reiterate, this is my own personal opinion and Read more…
If you want to play the end game, It’s available on Desktop only http://tetris.ivaylopavlov.com It’s also playable from Xbox and PS4 in their respective browsers, as it’s pure HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. Mobile is currently not supported, as it requires a keyboard to play. The code is available here: GitHub Read more…
I’m a big fan of TED Talks. There’s a little bit of everything for everyone. Below are the 5 talks that have influenced me most and changed my understanding of the world one way or another. I can’t recommend enough TED and the value of creative thought it promotes. I Read more…
It was not long ago that email ruled the world. A technology invented in 1960s, in my opinion, reigned until the 2010s. Companies made (still are) billions from selling software working on an ancient and proprietary protocols. The idea was quite simple, benefits like cost-effectiveness and delivery speed – undisputable. Read more…
I’ve set myself to write this Home Theatre Setup Guide, as there is a lot of information on home theatre systems, however none of it is well compiled and to the point or it’s just a blatant advertisement for the manufacturer of the equipment. Most of the knowledge I’ve gathered Read more…
After setting up Oh-My-Zsh as out default shell, the natural flow, goes to set up a multi-screen environment. Nowadays, most of the GUI consoles that comes with Gnome, KDE, etc. have support for tabs, however XTerm and PuTTY and others do not. iTerm 2 on Mac OS has native support Read more…
Starting up in Computer Science could be a scary experience for many, but there’s nothing to be afraid of. Everybody starts somewhere. The below 5 books are my personal favorites that provide high quality knowldege in a well presented manner. Worth the read! Enjoy!
Everything started when my flatmate, Stefan, wanted to play Battle City. It’s a very old game with tanks defending their base for NES. It was very popular in the 90s. When I was little I loved playing this game with friends, so I decided to see what’s available out there besides Read more…
Let me start by saying I’m a visual learner, so I’ve always had an inclination towards UML graphs and charts. So during one rainy day in London, I decided to aggregate the data from my Garmin Vivosmart HR, Apple Watch 2 and Yunmai Smart Scales in my Apple HealthKit app Read more…
Part II, deserves a follow up XKCD comic. Creating a GitHub account and a Repository Before we proceed forward we’ll need a GitHub account. Open www.github.com and create an account. Then click on the + sign at the top right and click on New Repository. Enter a Repository name, have it Read more…
Let’s start with a classic XKCD covering the situation. This is the first from a collection of posts of the type “Zero to Hero”. So first things first… What is Git? It’s a version control system for text files, so teams can work on the same files and track the changes. Read more…
As a finance geek, I’ve read quite a few books on the topic, below you will find the Top 5 (non-textbook) books that I’ve really enjoyed and believe others would too. Obviously, the list can be quite extensive, so I’ve narrowed it down to just 5. Let me know what Read more…